“Where are they !?” shouted the voice in Lula’s ear.
Slowly waking up from the medicines, the mare found it difficult to remember where she was or what had happened.
“What have you done with them? Tell me! You’ll tell me!” the voice kept on shouting.
And this time, Lula woke up entirely. It was Fluttershy’s voice she was hearing, and the violence with which the kind pony was suddenly expressing herself was the sign something very wrong was going on.
“I can forgive you.” Fluttershy said. “I’m sure you had a good reason. All I want to know is where you’ve hidden my little friends and why you did it!”
The critters. There were no critters. None whatsoever.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Lula replied, telling the truth.
“I’m talking about my animals. You made them disappear, I want them back, all of them, and you better not have harmed them in any way, or by Celestia I swear I won’t respond of my actions!”
“I didn’t make them disappear!” Lula defended herself, frightened by the threat. “I never saw your animals to begin with. I did nothing, absolutely nothing.”
“Liar!” shouted Fluttershy.
And the pegasus’s eyes took a new expression, a very menacing one, the same a bear mother would have when her offspring is being threatened.
“I know it’s you!” Fluttershy said. “It can’t be Rainbow Dash, and it can’t be me, that leaves only you.”
It was logical in the most illogical way possible. Understanding that she wouldn’t be able to reason with the Pegasus, Lula quickly glanced around to find a way to escape, but Fluttershy noticed it and it angered her even more.
“You’re not going anywhere until you tell me where my animals are!” she yelled. “I’ll find them, and when I do, you better pray not one of them is even remotely hurt!”
Fluttershy locked the shutter of the window with a padlock, then left the room, shut and locked the door behind her. But as soon as she had left, Lula heard her call the name of her critters with a voice that had no intonation of wrath anymore, but only sadness and anxiety. The simple sound of that voice broke Lula’s heart. She understood Fluttershy was only worried sick for her imaginary creatures, like a mother searching her children. It wasn’t making the threat less present though. It was clear that she had become the scapegoat again. Whatever was happening, she had to find a way to escape as soon as possible and flee far away, before the anxious Fluttershy would decide to use some more drastic measures to obtain the information she wanted from Lula, and that Lula just didn’t possess.
She checked in her mane and let out a sigh of relief. It was still there, the two little sticks of metal she had used to escape the first time. For a moment, she had feared to have lost them during her long journey, or that Fluttershy might have found them during her sleep.
Still, it wasn’t won yet. Lula immediately began to work on the door lock and after a few tries, eventually managed to open it. She glanced outside and saw nopony, but heard the calling of Fluttershy in the distance.
It was no time to be afraid. She had to take her chance, so she went out and hurried to the living room where she knew the main door was and by which she intended to leave.
But she hadn’t even entered the living room that she heard Fluttershy’s voice very near, probably just outside behind the door.
Not having any time to think about the best course of action, Lula climbed the stairs to seek refuge on the upper floor, just in time to disappear before Fluttershy entered the house.
Still, she had to hide again. It was still possible that Fluttershy would come up to look for the animals. Also, Lula wanted to go inside one of the room, just to stop hearing that terrible sad voice calling all those names with that vain hope she might find them.
She chose the third door, because it was the farthest away from the stairs, because it was probably the last place Fluttershy would come find her and because she didn’t have more time to think about it.
She shut the door behind her and found herself caught into a very dark room. Still, she could discern a bed in the middle of the room, and in that bed a silhouette formed by the blanket.
“Fluttershy? Is that you?” asked the voice.
“Shhhhhh.” Said Lula, who had forgotten about Rainbow Dash and was just now understanding her mistake.
“Please, Fluttershy, make it stop, the pain, it hurts so much.”
“I promise the pain will go away, just stay quiet.” Lula responded, looking for a way out.
“It hurts, please, do something, anything! Fluttershy! Please!” began to shout the distorted voice as the silhouette was beginning to convulse very violently.
“Shut up! She is going to hear you!” Lula begged.
“Make the pain go away. I can’t stand it anymore! You have no idea how much it hurts!” shouted the voice of Rainbow Dash even louder.
“I told you to shut up!” yelled Lula herself, losing control and grabbing the pony in the bed to make her stop.
But to her horror, she didn’t feel any flesh at all: it was all bones.
The door opened and the light entered the room, showing clearly the skeleton that was lying in the bed.
“No…” said Fluttershy at that sight. “Rainbow Dash. Celestia no… What have you done?” she asked Lula, who let go of the bones she was holding.
“I didn’t do anything, I swear. She was already dead.”
There was no way the Pegasus would believe her. Actually, even Lula couldn’t believe it. She had heard the dead pony talk to her just a few seconds ago.
“You killed her…” stated Fluttershy, overwhelmed by her sadness.
“I didn’t!” shouted Lula, as much to convince Fluttershy than to convince herself.
“You got rid of my little animals, and you killed my best friend… why?” asked the poor yellow Pegasus.
Lula was too confused to answer.
“You brought the plague with you!” began to understand Fluttershy. “You really are a witch. You infected all the critters, and you infected Rainbow Dash, and now you will kill me as well. You probably have infected me already!” she affirmed.
It wasn’t making any sense. It wasn’t possible. Lula wasn’t a witch. She would know if she was one. And even so, she didn’t have a horn anymore to do any witchery anyway.
The yellow Pegasus didn’t leave her any time to explore the matter any further. In an unexpected blow, Fluttershy hit her directly into the stomach, then into the head, almost knocking her out.
“You killed them all!” shouted Fluttershy in despair. “You killed all those who were dear to me! You murderer!”
Lula, on the floor, tried to get up, but the blow to her belly had completely incapacitated her.
“You may have condemned me, but I’m going to make sure you won’t hurt any creature ever again!” assured her Fluttershy, before hitting her one final time on the head, making her lose consciousness.
And then, the Pegasus just fell on the floor too, incapable to do anything else than crying. Everything was lost. All those she had sworn to protect, all those that were dear to her. Her own life. Not that she cared much about it anymore.
She looked at Lula’s body.
Now that it was lying there, knocked out, the feeling of threat was slowly disappearing and the kind Pegasus began to wonder what she was supposed to do. Of course she wanted to avenge all those that had been murdered, and she knew that in one swift action, she could prevent more deaths. But whatever the circumstances, she just wasn’t a murderer herself.
“I’m sorry.” She apologized out loud. “I can’t do it.”
Still, she had to find a solution very fast. Or at least, decide what she was going to do before that mare would wake up again and be able to put up some new trick.
Then it occurred to Fluttershy. If she wouldn’t put an end to the threat, there were creatures in the Everfree forest that probably would. And even if she couldn’t accept the idea to directly hand her over to them, which would be the same at killing her herself, she could abandon her somewhere in the middle of the forest, as far as possible.
Once there, it was very improbable that the mare would find a way out. And if she did, well, then Fluttershy couldn’t be blamed.
That plan tasted sour in her mouth, but Fluttershy, feeling like she had no other alternative and decided to honor her lost friend’s memory, decided to carry it out.
She bit the mare’s tail and dragged her downstairs, then out of the cottage and began her way, still dragging the mare, to the forest.
But then, she hit something behind her. Surprised, Fluttershy let go of Lula’s tail and turned back to look at what it was and found herself facing the rectangular stone.
She froze.